Sound Track for Osiris

Like many authors, I tend to work with music running in the background. Typically, classical or acoustic guitar. Am a big Segovia fan. (Look him up…Andreas Segovia – 1893-1987…arguably the greatest Spanish guitar player of all time.) Classical and guitar come to the front of my selections as I find it impossible to write when someone is singing lyrics. With one exception, opera. My Italian is so poor the lyrics pass as background noise. Unfortunately, my German is much better…so Wagner is out when I’m working.

All that said, I am prone to thinking through a chapter for a book with a particular song as a setting. Think of it as a literature equivalent of theme music for various characters. Or mood music for a scene. Having selected a song, I play it each morning before sitting down to write…gets my head back in the game.

So here we go for Osiris…with all due respect to the songwriters and performers. I play the stereo well, everything else defeats me.

Chapter 1: “Dust in the Wind” – Kansas

Chapter 2: “Say Goodbye to Paradise” – The Eagles

Chapter 3: “The Long Black Veil” – Led Zeppelin

Chapter 4: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana

Chapter 5: “Bad Moon Arising” – Credence Clearwater Revival

Chapter 6: “Sympathy for the Devil” – Rolling Stones

Chapter 7: “One in a Million: – Guns N Roses

Chapter 8: “When the Levee Breaks” – Led Zeppelin

Chapter 9: “Objects in the Rearview Mirror are Closer than they Appear” – Meatloaf

Chapter 10: “God Save the Queen” – Sex Pistols

Chapter 11: “Lawyers, Guns and Money:” Warren Zevon

Chapter 12: “Burning Down the House” – Talking Heads

Chapter 13: “Stranglehold” – Ted Nugent

Chapter 14: “The Show Must Go On” – Queen

Chapter 15: “Big Time Operators” – Van Morrison

Chapter 16: “Twilight Zone” – Golden Earring

Chapter 17: “Dirty Laundry” – Don Henley

Chapter 18: “I Want It All” – Queen

Chapter 19: “Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot

Chapter 20: Fight Fire with Fire” – Metallica

Chapter 21: First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin” – Leonard Cohen

And there you have it, the author’s play list. A quick snapshot into the musical recesses of my mind. Not sure what a psychologist would think—probably mumbles about schizophrenia or some such. That’s why I go to the gym—cheaper to beat up a weight room than pay an overfed crystal ball gazer.